Backing up my photos while on a trip usually involves bringing a laptop and a card reader. This is ok but I am looking for a lighter weight solution. An iPad is nice but it only copies jpgs and even the 64 gig version is not big enough to store everything I shoot on a 10 day trip. Raw files can be big.

Wireless probably changes everything.In the past I've used Hyperdrives (http://www.hypershop.com/HyperDrive/UDMA-2/). Purchased the case and put my own drive in it, and never had any problems.Whatever you choose I would want some means of looking at the images in detail while away to check for camera and lens hardware failure (and bad dust spots and the like). Bad things can happen to gear while travelling and not show up until you get back home and look at your photographs.

I've had a number of these over the years. Hated carrying them, hated making sure they were charged, hated operating then under the best of circumstances, and really really hate waiting for them. Oh, and praying my images will really be on the damn thing when I finally get home. Nope.. no more. Memory cards are too cheap, too small, utterly dependable, and really.. who goes anywhere without a small laptop much less on an entire vacation? Really? I carry roughly 256gb of cards, use a fraction of this over even a week.. and I carry my 2.3 pound very capable laptop.. ya, I know it's dated but if anyone can show me a model this light, with this much power, battery life, toughness.. I'll buy it. And I've been looking. I just buy replacement keyboards as I wear them out. $34 on Amazon (seriously)

What are vacation evenings for anyway if not to not be nagged as you upload your images to your laptop and review them? At the end of a day I'm like a kid with a bag full of candy.. and I'm not gonna let mom tell me to wait till morning. Even when in the jungle (seriously) me and my solar charger manages a once a week backup.. and I rotate my cards so that at any given time I'm using a fresh one, the used ones have been downloaded to my laptop and remain in their small case.. for two copies. And on the relatively rare times when I splurge for a fancy hotel room with running water and internet.. I download for hours and hours to my FTP..

I know I'm being tongue and cheek, but these things end up in the drawer. Yep, that drawer. We all have one.. some of us have several.

The iPad does copy over RAW files if you shoot RAW + JPEG. At least it does if you use Apple's SD card reader. Not sure about WiFi or USB transfer...I should check. Most iPad image processing apps ignore the RAWs, though. The PhotoRAW and PiRAWnha apps are dedicated to RAW conversion. Photogene can decode most RAWs too, though it doesn't give you any control over how it does so.

My main backup gizmo is a 1TB Sanho ColorSpace hard drive/reader. I also carry lotsa cards and prefer not to reuse any of 'em during a trip.

Yes. memory cards are the ideal solution as regards cost, weight, and reliability. Some cameras now offer 2 SD card slots and you can have all photos written to both cards. Thinking back to my recent Utah trip, I should have done this with my D600 and skipped the backup to my laptop.

Backing up my photos while on a trip usually involves bringing a laptop and a card reader. This is ok but I am looking for a lighter weight solution. An iPad is nice but it only copies jpgs and even the 64 gig version is not big enough to store everything I shoot on a 10 day trip. Raw files can be big.

None of these "solutions" are reliable and the only viable way is lots of memory cards, a computer and external drives. None of these weight very much. Also it's a very good idea to bring a laptop so that you can review your pictures on a large screen.

I would never trust my backups to go through some iPad addon. Files will live somewhere inside Apple's system and if you're unlucky one wrong sync will kill them. Online backups are also mostly useless. When I'm on a trip I easily shoot through various 16 gig cards per day. Good luck uploading those over a hotel wifi connection.

I just set the two cards in my camera to record a Raw file of each exposure on to each. Never even having had a card fail, I reckon that the chance of two failing simultaneously is a risk I am prepared to take. (Might be eating those words some day!!)

Not a fan of laptops and they do seem an expensive and weighty solution to "transportable data storage".

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None of these "solutions" are reliable and the only viable way is lots of memory cards, a computer and external drives. None of these weight very much. Also it's a very good idea to bring a laptop so that you can review your pictures on a large screen.

I would never trust my backups to go through some iPad addon. Files will live somewhere inside Apple's system and if you're unlucky one wrong sync will kill them. Online backups are also mostly useless. When I'm on a trip I easily shoot through various 16 gig cards per day. Good luck uploading those over a hotel wifi connection.

Sure, I can see how online backups would be tough for a guy shooting multiple 16gb cards per day.. 600+ images? On vacation or out capturing material I rarely hit 50-60 images a day. When working I might shoot a very large all day/night wedding at 400-500 images. I'm afraid if I shot 600+ images a day while on vacation I'd never have seen anything.

Many hotels offer wired connections in addition to business center high speed ports. Still, the fastest I've seen transfer 5gb an hour, usually less than half of that, r to my FTP, so it takes all night to do a weeks worth of how I shoot A solid 4g line can get you between the two.

Sure, I can see how online backups would be tough for a guy shooting multiple 16gb cards per day.. 600+ images? On vacation or out capturing material I rarely hit 50-60 images a day. When working I might shoot a very large all day/night wedding at 400-500 images. I'm afraid if I shot 600+ images a day while on vacation I'd never have seen anything.

well, it's mostly because of my shooting style. back in the day i couldn't afford really good cameras but at some point i figured out that if I use a basic nikon dslr, a prime lens, then shoot maybe 10-15 pictures which I would later stitch together I get a resolution that is pretty much the same as with a hasselblad and a good back. (insert disclaimer about color and geometry etc. here).

fast forward to today: I can afford very good equipment, but I kept the "shoot tons, then stitch" approach. i think this way I get quality that is completely out of this world. right now I'm looking at a 40,000 x 10,000 pixel image from some valley in iceland. even at 100% it is completely sharp, without any geometry error and pretty much perfect color.

well, it's mostly because of my shooting style. back in the day i couldn't afford really good cameras but at some point i figured out that if I use a basic nikon dslr, a prime lens, then shoot maybe 10-15 pictures which I would later stitch together I get a resolution that is pretty much the same as with a hasselblad and a good back. (insert disclaimer about color and geometry etc. here).

fast forward to today: I can afford very good equipment, but I kept the "shoot tons, then stitch" approach. i think this way I get quality that is completely out of this world. right now I'm looking at a 40,000 x 10,000 pixel image from some valley in iceland. even at 100% it is completely sharp, without any geometry error and pretty much perfect color.

During my last couple of trips to Spain, Serbia, Greece, seven plus weeks on the road between the two trips, I simply used the cards once and then used a pair of Hyperdrives for back-up and an iPad to check the images and serve as a tertiary back-up. The iPad handled the d800 raw files just fine.

For the most part, I use main stream and medium to fast 16 to 32 gb cards.

If I'm just shooting for a few days, I won't even bother with the Hyperdrives and simply work like film days, shoot, change the "film" and then ingest and process the raw files when I get home. It's sort of nice not to have to download and process nightly on the road today so I can relax and socialize when I travel, joist like the good old days.

During my last couple of trips to Spain, Serbia, Greece, seven plus weeks on the road between the two trips, I simply used the cards once and then used a pair of Hyperdrives for back-up and an iPad to check the images and serve as a tertiary back-up. The iPad handled the d800 raw files just fine.

For the most part, I use main stream and medium to fast 16 to 32 gb cards.

If I'm just shooting for a few days, I won't even bother with the Hyperdrives and simply work like film days, shoot, change the "film" and then ingest and process the raw files when I get home. It's sort of nice not to have to download and process nightly on the road today so I can relax and socialize when I travel, joist like the good old days.

Yes, if I'm on holiday for 3 or 4 days I just put the cards in my suitcase and enjoy myself. But if it's a trip to do photography then I always have 3 copies of every file. Spending twenty minutes a day on careful back up is nothing compared to the planning and cost involved in long haul travel. (Almost everywhere is long haul from NZ )Arriving home without proper sleep for some 40 to 50 hours, and having the suitcase go through several baggage handlers in different countries, there are just too many opportunities for the data to get lost.

Yes, if I'm on holiday for 3 or 4 days I just put the cards in my suitcase and enjoy myself. But if it's a trip to do photography then I always have 3 copies of every file. Spending twenty minutes a day on careful back up is nothing compared to the planning and cost involved in long haul travel. (Almost everywhere is long haul from NZ )Arriving home without proper sleep for some 40 to 50 hours, and having the suitcase go through several baggage handlers in different countries, there are just too many opportunities for the data to get lost.

You're sure right about that. It has to be planned for. I travel everywhere and once you build up a few miles the airline will show you their secret storage areas so you can take your camera gear in the cabin. I keep one set of cards in my front pocket (I can carry a few months of images that way. Another set is in the camera bags where most of the time are in the cabin with me. Another copy is on my laptop.

NZ is such a beautiful place.. when I visit (from Thailand it's a short flight compared to others) I never want to leave..

Ah, what the rest of us do with smaller images. Maybe someday you'll display them in a gallery that can show off your hard work.

In a weird way once I'm done, it's done and I somewhat lose interest. It's probably the same feeling that people experience who build houses only to sell them. But the more I look at published landscape work -- and obviously I'm not including the fine art guys and national geographic -- but rather what is used in printed guidebooks and even many coffee table books, I'm very surprised at how bad it is. Just a few days ago I looked through the large size volumes of photography books on Iceland and almost all the pictures sucked. With very few exceptions I would not have kept what they published. Very strange.

In a weird way once I'm done, it's done and I somewhat lose interest. It's probably the same feeling that people experience who build houses only to sell them. But the more I look at published landscape work -- and obviously I'm not including the fine art guys and national geographic -- but rather what is used in printed guidebooks and even many coffee table books, I'm very surprised at how bad it is. Just a few days ago I looked through the large size volumes of photography books on Iceland and almost all the pictures sucked. With very few exceptions I would not have kept what they published. Very strange.

This is how I feel about 999/1000 pictures of Angkor Vat or 99/100 of Thailand. I've made SEA my own and the best pictures I've seen are from the unknowns.. the people that publish books often are more into publishing books than making art. JMO..

The weight difference from a ultrabook to a pad including all the add-on gadgets are not that large. An device with proper keyboard, larger screen, mouse, built-in card reader, etc is also a proper tool for producing, not only for consuming like a pad. A pad from The Glossy Side is even less valuable with its closed Apleverse.

Btw: I wish for a easy way to "copy to cloud" directly from LR on sorted photos. That way I could sort the best photos by star rating and copy only these to cloud to save BW. Perhaps there is a smart way to do this?